a  I  B  RA  FLY 

OF  THE 
U  N  I VLRS  ITY 
or  ILLINOIS 


\ 


Return  this  book  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below.  A 
charge  is  made  on  all  overdue 
books. 

University  of  Illinois  Library 


OCT  29  B 


RIGHT  LIVING  SERIES 


handsome  new,  up-to-date  series  of 


^  ^  booklets  unique  in  style  and  treat- 
ment Handsomely  decorated  bindings, 
illuminated  cathedral  glass  decoration, 
dainty  trellis-work  effect,  etc. 


The  Kingship  of  Self  Control 


The  Majesty  of  Calmness 

William  George  Jordan 

Right  Living  as  a  Fine  Art 

Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

The  Master  of  Science  of 
Right  Living 

Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

The  Gentle  Art  of  Making 

Happy  G.  H.  Morrison 

The  Dream  of  Youth 

Hugh  Black 

The  Friendly  Life 


William  George  Jordan 


Henry  F.  Cope 


THE 
FRIENDLY  LIFE 

HENRY  F.  COPE 


"  Altd  here's  a  hand  my  trusty  friend 
And gie's  a  hand  thine; 
We'll  sing  a  song  of  kindness  yet 
For  auld  lang  syne,^^ 


Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 


New  York 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:     100  Princes  Street 


CONTENTS 


T 

I. 

T  T? 

Life  and  Friendship 

7 

11. 

The  Art  of  Being  a  Friend  . 

•  13 

III. 

Service  and  Friendship  . 

•  19 

IV. 

The  Help  of  the  Helpless 

25 

V. 

Hospitality  and  Friendship  . 

29 

VI. 

Sharing  the  Common  Life 

.34 

VII. 

Friendship  as  a  Climate 

40 

VIII, 

Faith  and  Friendship 

46 

IX. 

A  Path  to  the  Infinite  . 

52 

X. 

The  Immortality  of  Friendship 

58 

5 


The  Friendly  Life 


LIFE  AND  FRIENDSHIP 


RIENDSHIPS  are  the 
great  facts  of  all  full  lives. 
Friendship  is  the  final 
measure  of  all  our  living. 
It  is  just  folks  we  all  are 
hungry  for  and  it  is  just  our  own  selves 
that  the  world  wants  us  to  give  to  itself. 

There  comes  a  time  when  the  gold  loses 
its  glint,  when  all  that  we  have  garnered  when  the  hands 
and  gleaned  with  our  hands  slips  through  hoJdi'r  ^^^"^^ 
our  listless  fingers  and  we  fall  back  heed- 
less of  the  goods  in  our  hands  to  those 
held  in  our  hearts  ;  how  dark  then  are  the 
days  and  futile  seems  all  the  life  if  in  those 
treasuries  within  no  riches  or  resources  of 
friendship  are  to  be  found. 

7 


t  its  own 


8  The  Friendly  Life 

It  is  the  touch  of  other  hands  that  makes 
real  all  our  hands  can  hold ;  we  possess 
nothing  until  we  share  it.  It  is  the  light 
of  other  eyes  that  illumines  our  fairest 
pictures;  we  see  nothing  alone.  The 
shared  crust  is  always  sweetest.  Happi- 

every^day  helpful- 

nesses  that  make  ^iess  cauuot  sce  thc  cgoist,  and  there  is  no 

every   day  heav= 

^"ly  such  a  thing  as  individual  enjoyment. 

Friendship  is  the  alchemy  that  changes 
the  humble  possessions  and  even  the 
drear  things  of  daily  toil  and  living  into 
that  wealth  and  worth  and  glory  for  which 
gold  and  jewels  can  stand  only  as  feeble 
symbols  and  figures  of  speech. 

Yet  friendliness  is  sublime  in  its  very 
simplicity.  There  is  no  need  of  graduate 
courses  in  the  art  of  the  friendly  life. 
Life  itself  is  the  school  where  the  wise 
learn  the  worth  of  other  lives  and  so  char- 
acter loses  the  dross  of  self. 

The  full  life  is  the  one  that  has  learned 
to  live  itself  out  into  other  lives.    He  is 


Life  and  Friendship  9 

educated  who  has  learned  to  read  his  life 
in  the  light  of  that  sublime  intent  "  I  am 
come  that  they  might  have  life  and  that 
they  might  have  it  more  abundantly." 
He  lives  for  the  enriching  of  life  ;  he  gives 
life  to  all  by  giving  himself  in  simple 
friendship. 

And  when  I  come  to  the  end  of  the 
curriculum  I  would  ask  no  other  award  or 
degrees  than  that  many  should  say  "  That 
was  a  good  friend/'  and  some  might  so 
saying  think  of  Him  who  was  the  friend 
of  sinners. 

The  greatest  danger  of  our  day  is  that 
its  insistent  strife  shall  eat  away  our 
hearts,  that  the  struggle  for  sustenance 
shall  crush  all  sympathy,  that  we  shall 
adopt  the  business  creed  of  success  at 
any  price,  that  love  of  riches  shall  blind 
us  to  simple  human  rights  of  love.  The 
law  of  every  man  for  himself  inevitably 
means  the  devil  in  us  all.  Insensibility 


The  aim  of  all 
living  is  living  for 
all 


Hearts  of  gold 
do  not  take  gold 
to  heart 


lo  The  Friendly  Life 

to  suffering  is  too  great  a  price  to  pay 
for  any  kind  of  success.  It  will  be  a  dark 
day  for  us  if  this  age  of  steel  turns  our 
hearts  to  its  own  element. 

We  can  afford  to  lose  many  things  that 
we  usually  regard  as  essential ;  reverses 
may  rob  us  of  our  fine  furniture,  our  vast 
^       financial  resources,  our  artistic  treasures. 

Ordinary  kindli- 

ness  makes  extra-  Yet  we  cau  go  ou  Hviug  and  life  Still  have 

ordinary  happi- 
ness a  wonderful  fullness  if  we  do  not  lose  our 

friends,  if  we  have  held  fast  through  all 
fortune's  tides  to  affection  for  our  neigh- 
bours, to  common,  every-day  contact  with 
people  and  have  kept  our  lives  open  and 
accessible  to  other  lives.  No  greater  loss 
can  come  to  us  than  that  any  sort  of  suc- 
cess should  paralyze  those  sympathetic 
nerves  that  old-fashioned  friendliness  sent 
out  to  the  folks  about  us. 

True,  we  have  organized  charity.  And 
what  could  be  colder,  unwarmed  by  friend- 
ship ?    Nothing  can  ever  compensate  for 


Life  and  Friendship  ii 

the  old  neighbourly  interest  in  one  another, 
the  grief  over  the  friend's  losses,  the  ten- 
der inquiry  for  his  welfare,  the  littie  kindly 
act  of  help.  If  we  are  building  up  walls 
of  separation  between  ourselves  and  our 
fellows  we  are  constructing  our  own  sepul- 
chres. We  had  better  be  buried  the  day 
we  cease  to  ask,  with  real  solicitude, 
"  And  how  are  all  the  folks?" 

It  is  well  to  dot  our  cities  with  institu- 
tions of  benevolence ;  but  better  far  is  it 
to  cultivate  in  every  citizen  the  heart  of    A  little  warm 

J  1    ii  1  .  cheer  does  more 

tender  regard,  the  eyes  that  see  in  every  than  a  lot  of  coid 

face  the  story  of  struggles  and  needs, 

cares  and  burdens,  just  like  our  own. 

People  are  hungry  for  sympathy.  Your 

hand  can  never  help  until  you  give  them 

your  heart. 

Friendship  is  no  fad.  Sympathy  is 
more  than^  sentiment.  It  loathes  the  im- 
postor as  much  as  it  loves  the  impotent. 
It  helps  one  by  ?t  g-ift  and  another  by 


12  The  Friendly  Life 

throwing  him  on  his  own  resources.  In 
every  instance  it  is  the  seeing  of  another's 
life  through  the  eyes  with  which  we  look 
on  our  own,  and  the  consequent  doing 
for  another  life  what  we  would  like  to 
have  done  for  our  own. 

The  privileges  of  friendship  are  open 
to  all ;  none  is  too  poor  to  pity.    It  is  not 
Our  hands  are  a  matter  of  glviug  money,  but  of  giving 
aiways^empty  ti^  thc  sclf.    It  Is  uot  thc  luxury  of  the  idle  ; 

the  path  of  service  is  its  best  expression. 
Interest,  consideration,  fellow  feeling  are 
things  we  all  can  give.  Friendship  does 
not  need  to  wait  for  great  enterprises ;  it 
suggests  the  next,  simplest,  kindly  thing 
to  do.  The  little  deeds  of  love  make  the 
largest  record  in  the  land  where  love  is 
fully  understood.  Love  is  the  one  thing 
that  lifts  the  world,  and  most  of  all  is  he 
lifted  who  learns  to  love  the  least  of  his 
fellows. 


our 
given 


II 


THE  ART  OF  BEING  A  FRIEND 


folks 


HERE  are  some  people 
who  make  brave  profes- 
sions of  intense  love  for 
all  the  human  race  with 
whom  it  is  nevertheless 
exceedingly  difficult  for  individual  repre-    you  are  wasting 
sentatives  of  the  race  to  live.    It  is  always  pfnhig°  for  ^^nge^ 
an  easier  matter  to  be  filled  with  a  lofty  ^^^rnl/Z  til 
sentiment  of  universal  fraternity  than  it  is 
to  exhibit  even  ordinary  patience  with 
the  man  who  stands  beside  you. 

That  love  for  man  which  is  the  best 
evidence  of  one's  love  for  the  Most  High 
may  be  a  much  simpler  and  a  much 
rarer  quality  than  we  sometimes  think. 
It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  it  is  all 
summed  up  and  expressed  in  foreign  and 
home  missionary  offerings  or  even  in  re- 
form and  charity  organizations  or  that  it 
13 


14  The  Friendly  Life 

is  the  exclusive  property  of  those  who 
write  and  sing  about  the  brotherhood  of 
man. 

It  is  really  an  easy  matter  to  learn  to 
love  the  ideal  and  fictitious  man,  the 
creature  of  the  poet's  imagination.  He 
makes  no  assauhs  on  your  nerves,  olfac- 
tory or  others,  and  when  you  get  tired  of 
him  you  can  just  shut  your  mind  to  him ; 
he  will  not  shiver  on  your  mental  door- 
step nor  vex  your  philosophic  soul  with 
querulous  intimations  on  bread  and  hand- 
outs. 

Some  of  the  most  pugnaciously  selfish 
people  in  this  world  seem  to  take  perfect 
It  takes  more  delight  in  drcams  of  the  federation  of  the 

than  soft  solder  to 

cement  souls  to-  natious  of  the  world,  when  all  the  peoples 

gether 

shall  love  one  another,  all  the  flags  be 
furled  and  the  cannon  be  converted  into 
flower  pots.  But  that  universal  fraternity 
would  be  quite  a  diflferent  matter  to  them 
if  it  became  practical  and  affected  the  in- 


The  Art  of  Being  a  Friend  15 

terest  on  government  bonds  or  the  price 
of  furs  and  feathers. 

Some  of  the  most  disagreeable  people 
in  the  world,  candidates  for  heavenly 
individual  islands,  are  prodigious  reser- 
voirs of  emotional  verse  and  phrase  on 
brotherhood  and  the  love  of  our  fellow     Cheerful  sinners 

may    work  less 

beings.    But  the  fellow-being  sentiment  ^^^"^  ^^^^  t^e 

sour  saints 

was  not  made  to  embrace  their  servants 
and  neighbours  who  would  be  quite 
happy  if  one  possessed  of  such  angelic 
ideals  would  take  an  angelic  habitation 
permanently. 

Then  you  will  find  some  ordinary  peo- 
ple, rough,  perhaps,  on  the  exterior,  and 
even  sometimes  seemingly  untroubled  by 
high  ideals,  about  whom  their  fellow  be- 
ings gather  like  iron  filings  to  a  magnet, 
to  whom  they  cling  in  times  of  trouble 
like  limpets  to  a  rock.  They  may  have 
heard  quite  nothing  of  poetry  on  brother- 
hood ;  they  are  simply  brothers,  that's  all 


i6  The  Friendly  Life 


There  are  others  who  seem,  as  we  say, 
to  have  a  faculty  for  getting  along  with 
all  kinds  of  folk ;  they  make  friends  and 
they  hold  them.  They  are  found  amongst 
all  kinds  of  people  and  in  all  walks  of  life, 
but  they  are  the  cement  of  society  every- 
where. They  are  not  often  brilliant  and 
they  are  seldom  burdened  by  theories  of 
social  improvement,  but  they  are  just 
brothers,  making  us  all  a  family. 

Now,  there  is  nothing  mysterious  about 
this  power  that  some  have  to  win  friends 
The  secret  of  and  to  bind  us  all  together.    It  simply 

force  with  men  is 

faith  in  men  mcaus  that  they  have  learned  to  look  for 
the  essential  things  in  people  ;  they  like 
us  for  our  own  sakes  ;  they  set  their  hearts 
on  the  souls  of  men,  the  real  self  in  pach 
of  us.  They  get  along  with  the  hobo  be- 
cause they  see  through  his  rags  and  with 
the  king  because  they  do  not  see  his  re- 
galia. 

The  trouble  with  many  of  us  is  that 


The  Art  of  Being  a  Friend  17 

when  we  talk  about  brotherhood  we 
mean  we  would  take  all  men  into  our 
family  if  they  would  acquire  our  tastes 
and  habits.  When  we  look  at  the  other 
man  we  are  thinking  how  unlike  he  is  to 
what  we  are  and  therefore  to  what  he' 
ought  to  be.  We  miss  the  man  himself 
because  we  cannot  see  through  his  con- 
ditions and  clothes. 

While  we  are  seeking  to  save  religion 
from  evaporation  in  sentiment  shall  we 
not  seek  to  save  fraternity  from  the  same 
fate  ?    Brotherhood  means  many  a  hard   Many  a  man  has 

1  1    .  frr-t    ^^^^^     the  real 

lesson,  means  domg  many  a  difficult  riches  of  ufe  by 

,1  .  .  1  .  .  -n    ^       looking   into  the 

thmg,  means  paymg  a  big  price.    But  it  faces  of  the  poor 

means  finding  a  great  reward,  it  means 

the  discovery  of  humanity.    It  means 

learning  to  live  with  other  people  and  so 

finding  the  greatest  wealth  in  the  world, 

that  which  lies  in  human  hearts  and 

minds. 

A  man  learns  to  love  books  by  reading 


i8  The  Friendly  Life 


and  songs  by  singing,  but  the  greatest  of 
all  loves,  the  love  of  humanity,  of  lives, 

To    open    your    .     ,  j   •     .   i      i.  . 

heart     to  your 

IS  learnea  just  by  living  with  people,  by 

brother  is  the  best    j.   i  •  .  •  .       r      t  i        .  . 

way  to  lift  your 

taRing  time  to  hna  out  what  is  m  them. 

Father 

y°"^  by  stopping  long  enough  in  our  mad 
business  of  making  a  living  to  realize  that 
the  best  things  of  life  lie  in  the  love  and 
life  of  others. 


Ill 


SERVICE  AND  FRIENDSHIP 


VERY  normal  man  has  a 
sense  of  obligation  to  life, 
a  consciousness  of  being 
called  to  service.  At  its 
highest  this  becomes  the 
ideal  desire  for  the  salvation  of  the  world.  ^^^""^ 

•    people    and  you 

But  the  salvation  of  the  world  is  simply  the  "^"^      "^^^  *° 

^  worry  about  get- 

salvation  of  the  people  in  the  world.    If       people  into 

heaven 

natural  objects  are  defiled  we  have  defiled 
them ;  if  society  is  deranged  it  is  people, 
persons  who  have  deranged  it.  The  new 
heaven  will  not  come  by  letting  down 
golden  streets ;  it  must  come  by  lifting 
up  the  people  to  golden  ideals. 

The  need  of  the  world  is  not  laws,  nor 
logic,  but  life  and  life  through  lives.  If 
you  would  lift  it  you  must  give  a  life, 
must  pour  out  life.    Without  the  shedding 
19 


20  The  Friendly  Life 

of  blood  there  is  no  putting  away  of  the 
things  that  debase  and  hinder ;  there  is  no 
salvation  for  humanity  without  the  put- 
ting of  our  blood  and  bone  and  sinew  into 
its  service. 

Life  is  the  only  power  that  can  make 
life.    The  new  life  of  society  can  come 
It  is  always  eas-  ouly  by  vital  proccsscs.    Our  own  lives, 

ier  to  talk  of  giv- 
ing your  life  to  the  thcsc  dccp,  iuucr  selves,  are  steadily  shap- 

world  than  it  is  to 

give  some  one  ten  iug  othcr  livcs,  while  we  owc  our  lives  as 
minutes  ^^^^  Hfe-forccs  from  friends,  from 

those  who  come  nearest  to  us.  The  life 
of  ideals  comes  to  us  all  by  the  vitalizing, 
inspiring  power  of  the  ideals  and  hopes 
of  the  lives  of  our  friends.  It  is  folly  to 
send  your  faith  to  others  by  the  circuitous 
route  of  the  pulpit  when  you  have  the 
short  direct  service  to  them  through 
friendship. 

The  best  thing  you  can  give  the  world 
is  the  true  and  friendly  life.  It  adds 
more  to  the  world's  wealth  than  any  other 


Service  and  Friendship  21 

thing.  What  we  are  is  our  actual  eternal 
contribution  to  society.  Every  right  life 
lived  near  to  other  lives  means  that 
humanity  has  so  much  more  vitality  and 
spiritual  health  with  which  to  live. 

A  man  needs  men  more  than  he  needs 
spirits.  You  can  no  more  satisfy  the 
human  heart  with  departed  souls  than     Love  is  every- 

1  .  ,      ,  .     1  day  life-giving 

you  can  appease  hunger  with  kitchen 
odours.  People  want  people  to  love. 
No  matter  how  perfect  philosophically 
may  be  your  plan  of  uplifting  the  masses 
by  ideals  you  will  always  find  that  they 
prefer  to  take  their  ideals  on  two  legs  and 
with  the  light  of  life  in  their  eyes.  They  * 
would  rather  associate  with  the  most 
mediocre  men  than  with  the  most  highly 
cultured  mummies,  and  you  will  find  them 
getting  more  out  of  common  people  on  the 
street  than  out  of  the  most  fascinating 
forms  in  the  art  gallery. 
The  living  of  a  true  life  is  in  itself  the 


22  The  Friendly  Life 


giving  of  that  life  to  the  world  ;  it  is  the 
outgoing  of  all  good  qualities  in  ourselves 
and  their  impartation  to  others.  This 
contact  and  infusion  with  character  we 
cannot  escape.  They  who  live  lay  down 
their  lives  for  their  fellows  as  well  and  as 
truly  as  they  who  die. 

It  often  seems  that  the  laying  down  of 
life  is  a  particularly  attractive  theme  to 
Ten  cents*  worth  pcoplc  who  havc  uo  Hvcs  worth  laying 

of  help  will  make 

more  religion  than  down.  1  hev  like  to  talk  of  the  cross  and 
argument'^°'^  °  the  shamc  and  the  shedding  of  blood,  and 
they  succeed  in  satisfying  their  impulse 
for  doing  these  things  by  simply  describ- 
ing them.  But  other  simple  folks  who 
shrink  from  phrases  so  pregnant  with 
meaning  are  just  laying  down  their  lives 
in  kindly,  thoughtful  helpfulness.  They 
are  never  too  weary  to  carry  a  plate  of 
cookies  next  door,  never  two  burdened  to 
lift  another^s  load,  never  too  busy  to  write 
a  cheery  note,  never  too  much  occupied  to 


Service  and  Friendship  23 

be  hospitable  to  the  child's  story  of  his 
woes  or  the  man's  cry  of  need. 

Living  for  others  usually  has  nothing 
spectacular  about  it,  no  consciousness  of 
doing  great  things.  Love  never  knows 
how  great  is  its  work,  nor  how  much  it  ,  ^-^vingyouriove 

^  '  lengthens  and 

gives.  Simple  friendship  in  lowly  ways  ^^^p®"®^* 
may  often  be  the  highest  expression  of 
this  sacrificial  life.  When,  in  days  of 
need,  my  mother  sent  me  to  a  neighbour 
with  a  bowl  of  soup,  I  learned  more  relig- 
ion than  in  any  sermon  and  felt  expres- 
sionally  its  beauty  more  than  in  any  son- 
net on  sympathy. 

Most  of  all  men  need  the  grip  of  the 
hand  of  a  fellow  and  the  nearness  of  a 
life  on  which  they  can  draw.  To  be  true 
friend  to  any  man  is  to  give  him  the 
richest  gift  you  have.  To  walk  in  com- 
radeship with  our  fellows,  being  true  al- 
ways to  the  best  in  ourselves,  is  to  help 
them  best  to  that  which  is  great  and  true. 


24  The  Friendly  Life 

To  walk  ourselves  in  friendship  with 
things  infinite  and  holy  is  to  find  eternal 
life. 

You  can  lift  people  only  as  you  live  with 
them.    The  faith  that  is  now  yours  can 
Friendship  is  bccome  theirs  only  as  they  have  faith  in 

faith's  channel 

you,  as  friendship  binds  them  to  you, 
compels  them  to  walk  your  way  and  soon 
opens  their  eyes  to  see  the  visions  that 
have  heartened  you.  Faith  is  not  taught ; 
it  is  caught  and  friendship  is  its  finest 
cultural  medium. 


IV 


THE  HELP  OF  THE  HELPLESS 

OU  remember  the  man  at 
the  pool  of  Bethesda? 
We  would  call  him  a 
failure  ;  others  were  ever 
stepping  before  him.  In 
his  loneliness  he  was  not  alone ;  others 
came  for  their  own  healing,  but  none  for 
his  help.  Multitudes  of  advisers  wished 
him  well ;  priests  would  prove  the  curative 
properties  of  the  water ;  others  would 
throw  him  a  few  coppers  or  some  food, 
but  who  would  take  up  his  poor  wasted 
frame  in  arms  of  strength  and  bear  him 
down  to  the  pool  at  the  right  time? 

There  was  a  great  vacancy  in  Jerusa- 
lem ;  there  was  need  of  one  who  would 
help  the  helpless.  This  was  the  vacancy 
that  Jesus  both  filled  there  and  has  led  us 
to  fill  everywhere.    He  proved  His  right 

25 


26  The  Friendly  Life 

to  be  called  the  Son  of  God  by  His  rec- 
ognition of  the  claims  of  His  brothers  on 
Him,  by  the  reaction  of  His  life  to  the 
touch  of  the  life  of  all  the  divine  family. 
We  talk  about  the  claims  that  Jesus  has 
upon  humanity  ;  there  will  be  no  trouble 
Faith  in  God  is  on  that  scorc  if  we  can  but  understand 

nothing    without     .  i        i    •  i        i  .  , 

fellowship  with  the  claims  that  humanity  has  upon  Jesus, 
"'^'^  He  was  the  great  humanitarian.     He  re- 

veals His  divinity  through  His  humanity. 
His  full  humanity  by  His  helpful  friend- 
ship. 

Men  towards  men  are  more  brutal 
than  are  the  brutes.  Seeking  their  feed 
boxes  and  hayracks,  they  care  not  on 
whom  they  trample.  Our  factories,  our 
streets,  all  our  complex  life,  is  like  that 
scene  at  Bethesda — it  is  a  good  and  hope- 
ful, energizing  place  for  the  strong,  a  sad, 
hard  one  for  the  weak.  But  into  the 
scenes  of  selfish  strife  there  comes  another 
presence,  that  of  the  lover  of  men,  the  one 


The  Help  of  the  Helpless  27 

filled  with  a  passion  for  people,  who  does 
not  despise  the  failure,  who  forgets  that 
the  beggar  is  dirty  and  decrepit,  unwhole- 
some and  repulsive,  who  remembers  only 
that  he  is  a  man  and  in  need  ;  who  for- 
erets  that  He  miQ:ht  barofain  with  him  and    "^^^n  God  sym- 

^  00  pathizes  He  does 

sell  His  strength,  who  sees  only  the  oppor-  more  than  sigh 

tunity  to  serve.    He  is  the  great  helper. 

His  heart  goes  out  to  the  helpless.  He 

is  the  world's  great  teacher  of  humanity. 

He  is  the  high  priest  at  the  eternal  altar 

of  sacrifice.    By  His  pity  and  help  for 

that  one  He  turns  the  squalid  pool  into  a 

glorious  temple.    He  shows  us  how  best 

to  worship. 

The  test  of  any  religion,  of  any  gospel, 
of  any  scheme  of  social  amelioration  is 
here:  Does  it  really  help  men?  Most 
of  all,  does  it  help  those  who  are  most 
needy?  Is  it  the  ministration  of  the 
strong  to  the  weak  ?  How  much  of  our 
success  is  but  sin  in  His  eyes  ?    How  much 


28  The  Friendly  Life 


that  we  call  religion  is  but  a  pressing 
about  the  pool  so  that  the  really  needy 
are  crowded  back  and  forgotten  ?  And 
many  a  hidden  life  is  receiving  heaven's 
highest  commendation  because  it  is  try- 
ing to  do  what  He  did  then  ;  it  is  simply 
The  best  way  to  seeking  to  help  some  one  ;  it  is  trying^  to 

lose    your     own  ox  '  ^  e> 

troubles  is  to  lift  be  cycs  to  the  blind  or  feet  to  the  lame. 

up  another's 

This  is  the  proof  of  friendship,  the  love 
of  the  unlovely,  the  befriending  those  who 
can  make  no  return. 

The  heavenly  hfe  is  helpful  to  those 
who  are  helpless.  Some  day.it  will  hear 
one  saying :  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  My  brethren 
ye  did  it  unto  Me.'' 

Here  is  a  way  of  greatness  that  all 
may  tread.  Its  simplicity  equals  its  sub- 
limity. It  is  highest  when  it  is  least 
conscious  of  itself.  It  gives  itself  most 
completely  when  it  lets  out  its  own  hunger 
for  other  lives. 


V 


HOSPITALITY  AND  FRIENDSHIP 

HEN  you  read  that  story 
of  Mary  and  Martha  did 
you  never  feel  a  good 
deal  of  sympathy  for  the 
sister  who  worked  so  hard 
to  entertain  their  guest  ?  It  seems  strange 
that  the  good  Friend  should  seem  almost  to 
rebuke  her  tender,  thoughtful  hospitality. 

But  the  good  Teacher  was  not  con- 
demning the  hospitality  of  Martha ;  He 
was  commending  the  larger,  deeper  hos-  ^^^^^'^^^^ 
pitality  of  Mary.  To  Him,  as  to  us  all,  passion  is 
there  is  but  one  thing  absolutely  neces- 
sary. That  is  not  food  and  dainties ;  it  is 
not  furniture  and  luxuries — ^it  is  the  open 

heart  of  friendship.    There  was  greater 
29 


30  The  Friendly  Life 

refreshing  in  the  friendship  of  the  one  who 
sat  at  His  feet  than  in  all  the  food  that  the 
tables  might  bear. 

Do  we  not  all  need  often  to  hear  His 
saying — we  who  are  careful  and  cumbered 
about  many  things,  about  food  and  tables, 
Nothing  is  given  ^bout  clothcs  and  houscs— that  we  are 

ill  we  give  our- 

elves  likely  to  miss  that  good  and  imperishable 

treasure  of  friends  and  human  fellowship  ? 
And  when  we  would  entertain  our  friends 
might  we  not  well  think  less  of  the  things 
we  would  set  before  them  than  of  those 
riches  of  personality,  our  own  selves, 
which  we  can  give  them  ? 

The  great  need  of  every  life,  that  for 
which  our  hearts  are  hungry,  is  not  food 
and  drink,  it  is  not  even  books  or  thinking, 
is  not  silver  or  gold — it  is  just  folks,  people 
to  know  one  another,  to  read  open  hearts, 
to  taste  the  fruits  of  friendship.  The  one 
thing  needful,  that  which  gives  happiness, 
peace  and  permanent  prosperity,  is  just 


Hospitality  and  Friendship  31 

this  openness  of  heart,  this  heartfulness 
to  others  that  wins  and  makes  friends. 

The  hospitable  home  is  the  one  where 
people  have  time  to  know  you.  Where 
there  is  always  a  place  by  the  hearthside 
and  an  ear  to  listen,  where  the  lovelight 
glows  from  face  to  face.  We  soon  forget 
what  we  have  had  or  eaten  in  the  homes 
we  have  visited  ;  but  we  never  lose  what 
our  friends  have  given  us  of  themselves. 

The  house  that  has  the  great  treasure 
may  be  one  where  there  is  no  plate  to  be 
stolen  but  where  hearts  are  rich  through 
habits  of  soul  communion.  The  weary  The  close  heart 
man  lifts  himself  with  renewed  vigour  as  housf  ^^^^ 
he  looks  along  the  road  to  where  love 
waits,  where  eyes  will  look  deep  into  his  ; 
the  woman  knows  not  the  toil  and  drudg- 
ery of  the  day's  work  for  the  thought  of 
the  fellowship  with  those  she  loves. 

Many  are  making  Martha's  mistake, 
missing  the  riches  of  friendships  in  the 


32  The  Friendly  Life 

machinery  and  ministrations  of  hospi- 
taUty ;  we  are  so  anxious  to  entertain  our 
friends  that  we  drive  them  away  ;  we  are 
so  anxious  to  feed  them  that  we  starve 
their  hearts.  Whatever  else  people  want, 
this  they  want  most  of  all  and  first  of  all, 
just  to  know  people,  just  to  have  the  open 
way  into  our  real  lives. 

No  matter  how  much  work  a  man  may 
do  he  will  do  nothing  worthy  if  he  is  too 
He  who  has    busy  to  make  friends.    The  value  of  our 
f^ern'rirthem    iuvcstmeut  ixi  the  world  depends  largely 
only  to  lose  them  Planner  in  which  our  own  self  is 

drawn  out  and  enriched  through  the 
touch  of  other  lives.  No  man  can  be  great 
by  himself  alone  ;  all  greatness  is  a  gath- 
ering in  to  ourselves  of  other  beings. 

He  who  chooses  to  find  friends  has  that 
better  part.  The  snare  of  our  modern 
living  is  that  we  are  so  busy  here  and 
there  doing  many  things,  most  of  them 
perhaps  good  things  in  themselves  but 


Hospitality  and  Friendship  33 

bad  when  they  stand  before  the  better  and 
higher  things ;  we  are  so  full  of  business 
that  we  miss  Hfe's  real  blessings. 

He  who  chooses  friendship  chooses  that 
which  he  can  never  lose.  No  man  can 
take  from  you  the  memory  of  your  friend  ; 
none  can  rob  you  of  the  enrichine  of  mind    ^  ^"^"""^ 

^  '  with  whom  you 

the  enlarging  of  heart  and  sympathy  that  "^^^  "^^""p  persist- 
came  as  you  lay  with  him  by  the  camp- 
fire  under  the  far-off  stars  or  sat  by  the 
hearthside  in  the  home.    Friends  become 
inseparable  soul  possessions. 

So,  if  you  would  show  true  hospitality 
to  any,  let  your  first  concern  be  that  his 
heart  is  fed.  He  who  comes  to  your 
home  wants  you  more  than  he  wants  your 
bread  and  butter,  your  dainties  and  guest 
delicacies.  There  is  a  feast  wherever 
friendship  freely  flows  ;  there  is  emptiness 
and  hunger,  no  matter  how  the  board 
may  be  laden,  where  hearts  are  closed  to 
one  another, 


VI 


SHARING  THE  COMMON  LIFE 

HATEVER  we  have,  we 
have  through  the  aid  of 
others  ;  all  that  we  have, 
we  have  for  the  aid  of 
others.     Of  our  own  un- 
aided strength  we  could  gain  or  make 
nothing.    Holding  aught  that  we  have 
Living  is  paying  £  exclusivelv,  it  becomes  as 

to  the  future  the 

debts  we  owe  the  j^Qthiug  to  US.  Cooperatiou  in  production 
and  sharing  in  use  and  enjoyment  are  the 
twin  secrets  of  rightly  adjusted  harmonious 
living. 

Forgetting  either  of  these  simple  prin- 
ciples we  come  either  to  inner  misery  or 
to  outer  failure.  We  never  can  get  along 
with  life  unless  we  will  take  it  on  its  own 
terms  ;  invariably  these  are  mutual  serv- 
ice and  sacrifice.  Every  tree  in  the 
34 


Sharing  the  Common  Life  35 

forest  gives  its  life  to  .  all  others  and  gains 
its  life  from  all  other  life.  Individualism 
is  impossible  normally. 

Mutual  service  and  sacrifice  alone  are 
normal.  The  secret  of  living  with  others 
is  living  for  them ;  our  indebtedness  to 
them  we  cannot  escape  ;  to  endeavour  to 
avoid  the  payment  of  the  debt  is  to  hide 
ourselves  from  our  greatest  happiness  and 
from  our  largest  opportunities  of  self-de- 
velopment. The  life  that  withdraws  into 
itself,  either  in  independence  or  in  greed, 
begins  a  process  of  perpetual  shrinking. 

The  people  of  the  open  life  are  always 
happy  people.    We  call  them  generous,    ^^'^ "°  look. 

*  U       J.   J  ^  pickle 

large    nearted,   not  because  they  are  ^^en  you  talk  of 

'1     •  1  1  loving  your  neigh- 

easily  imposed  upon  by  every  mendicant,  tour 
but  because  they  have  the  sense  of  our 
common  life  ;  they  seem  to  enjoy  sharing 
life  with  us ;  they  both  give  and  take 
freely  of  all  that  we  may  have  together 
of  joy  or  of  sorrow.    They  seem  incapable 


It's  a  profitless 
task  trying  to  lay- 
up  other  peo- 
ple's treasures  in 
heaven 


36  The  Friendly  Life 

almost  of  thinking  in  terms  of  individ- 
uality. 

Such  a  life  is  happy,  because  it  is  in 
harmony  with  the  laws  of  living ;  it  is 
neither  bent  on  putting  the  earth  in  its 
pocket,  nor  is  it  burdened  with  a  sense 
of  a  mission  to  carry  the  world  on  its 
back ;  it  simply  shares  life  freely.  It  is 
the  type  of  the  friendly  life.  These  are 
the  kind  of  people  we  like  to  know  even 
though  we  cannot  easily  estimate  or 
make  inventory  of  the  advantages  of  the 
acquaintance. 

After  all,  what  we  prize  most  highly  in 
our  friends,  is  not  the  goods,  or  the  cash, 
or  the  influence,  or  any  kind  of  direct 
gifts  or  benefit  they  can  bring  us ;  it  is 
just  the  privilege  of  sharing  their  lives. 
The  riches  of  friendship  do  not  depend  at 
all  on  the  extent  of  the  fortunes  shared ; 
they  depend  on  the  sincerity  and  depth 
of  the  lives  freely  opened  one  to  another. 


Sharing  the  Common  Life  37 

When  I  am  in  sorrow  or  distress,  my 
need  is  my  friend  himself,  not  his  means. 
The  latter,  without  the  former,  would  be 
an  insult;  the  former  will  always  take 
care  of  the  latter.    When  he  is  in  need     The  best  cure  for 

your    sorrow  is 

the  first  impulse  is  that  of  sympathy,  care  for  another's 
letting  the  self  go  out  to  him.    We  all 
need  folks,  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of 
people  more  than  we  need  alms  or  dis- 
pensaries, or  endowments. 

Perhaps  there  was  something  greater 
than  we  have  yet  realized  in  the  saying 
of  Jesus :  **  Wherever  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  My  name  there  am 
I  in  the  midst.''  The  greatest  need  and 
the  great  blessing  of  our  humanity  is  this 
togetherness,  this  grouping  of  ourselves 
socially.  Wherever  men  meet  in  the 
spirit  of  that  great  Teacher,  sharing  their 
lives  in  human  fellowship,  there,  if  any- 
where, the  spirit  divine  is  in  the  midst. 

The  finest  thing  ever  said  of  the  man 


38  The  Friendly  Life 

of  Nazareth  was  that  He  became  the  friend 
of  sinners.  The  best  pictures  show  Him 
in  fellowship  with  men.  He  became  fel- 
low to  our  hard  lot,  touched  with  the 
feeling  of  all  our  infirmities ;  He  shared 
our  crust  and  our  cheer ;  our  anguish  and 
bitterness  were  His. 

We  have  talked  about  that  life  of  the 
common  fellowship  as  though  it  was  one 
of  exceeding  pain  and  sorrow,  as  though 
the  whole  course  of  sharing  our  common 
lot  was  entirely  repugnant  to  the  nature 
of  that  great  man.  But  was  not  that  life 
1.0 ve    never       ^^^^  pcrfectlv  uormal  one  the  world 

knows  pain  when  '■  ^ 

it  meets  it         h^s  sccu  ?  Would  it  uot,  thcrcforc,  be  the 
most  perfectly  happy  ? 

The  life  of  one  is  found  only  in  the  life 
of  all  Sharing  life  is  finding  it.  Noth- 
ing will  soothe  our  own  pains,  increase 
our  own  pleasures,  or  do  more  for  this 
whole  world  than  entering  into  fellowship  / 
with  other  lives,  sharing  ,  our  own  lives; 


Sharing  the  Common  Life  39 

coming  into  the  fellowship  in  deed  and 
truth,  as  well  as  in  sentiment  with  the 
Father's  great  family,  with  these  people    He  who  seeks 

^    »i  '1  t  the  suffering 

whom  we  meet  m  our  daily  toil  and  never  need  to 

J     »  worry     as  to 

QUtieSe  whether  he  is 

walking  with  the 
Saviour 


VII 


FRIENDSHIP  AS  A  CLIMATE 


IFE  is  largely  a  matter  of 
atmosphere.    But  atmos- 
phere is  a  much  larger 
matter  than  that  of  the 
weather  and,  fortunately, 
if  we  but  knew  it  more  controllable.  The 
face  of  a  friend  will  make  one  think  of 
summer  blooms  even  in  a  blizzard.  We 
If  if  you  would  must  cudure  our  physical  climate  but 

shine  as  the  stars    ,  .     ,  ,  ,  . 

begin  with  a  little  the  climatc  of  the  soul  we  make  for  our- 

sunshine  now  ,         1.1  •  .pr-ii» 

selves  by  the  environment  of  friendships. 

We  talk  about  the    sunny  South  and 

"sunny  Spain'' ;  are  not  all  lands  sunny? 

Does  not  the  Eskimo  have  his  sunshine 

and  enjoy  it?     Do  not  the  shores  of 

Newfoundland  have  their  clear  days? 

Are  there  not  sunny  lives  in  the  North 
40 


Friendship  as  a  Climate  41 

and  shadowy  ones  in  the  South  ?  The 
truth  is  we  are  seeking  for  joys  in  circum- 
stances that  are  found  only  in  character. 

We  talk  of  happy  and  favoured  lots  ; 
are  not  all  lots  happy  and  all  lives  rich  in 
favours?  Those  burdened  ones,  those 
who  wage  steadily  the  bitter  fight  with 
poverty,  do  they  not  talk  of  happy  hours 
and  have  moments  when  the  cup  of  joy 
is  brimming  full  ?  No  life,  at  all  normal 
or  natural,  is  so  constituted  or  circum- 
stanced that  happiness  is  impossible  to  it. 

Are  there  then  no  differences  ?  Are  all 
men  equally  happy  and  blest  ?  The  dif- 
ferences are  not  where  we  are  accustomed 
to  look  for  them.    This  man  is  favoured,     sympathy  opens 

the  windows  to 

not  because  he  has  a  larger  house  than  IS  life's  sunshine 
yours,  but  because  he  opens  his  heart  to 
happiness.    This  man  is  happy  with  the 
tiny  hut  because  he  finds  his  joy  not  in 
things  but  in  high  thoughts. 

The  heart  makes  its  own  climate.  The 


42  The  Friendly  Life 


sun  shines  everywhere ;  some  natures 
hide  from  it  and  some  find  its  fleeting 
gleams  on  cloudy  days  rich  with  promise 
and  refreshing.  You  can  wake  up  gloomy 
and  carry  a  November's  fog  through  a 
The  songin  your  Juuc  day,  if  you  wlU  ;  or  you  may  will 

own  heart  will  <      i  •  t  i 

sustain  you  longer  gcuial  warmth  aud  cheer  m  to  January  s 

if  you  share  it  -  - 

dreary  hours. 

We  all  know  people  who  seem  to  be 
always  cheerful,  who  fairly  warm  up  our 
dull  lives  with  the  glow  of  their  own. 
They  have  found  the  heart's  clime 
where  the  days  are  always  bright.  They 
are  making  a  climate  of  their  own.  And 
the  secret  of  their  cheer  is  that  they  seek 
out  the  hidden  source  of  joy  and  strength. 

The  outer  life  depends  on  this  inner 
living.  The  surface  of  a  life  only  reveals 
its  sources.  The  deeper  you  strike  in 
your  hold  on  the  great  things  of  living 
the  higher  you  may  grow.  Joy  and 
strength  are  the  fruitage  borne  where  the 


Friendship  as  a  Climate  43 

life's  roots  go  deep  into  great  confidences 
and  aspirations,  great  passions,  and  ideals. 

Do  we  not  often  think  of  these  cheery 
lives  as  possessed  of  some  peculiar  super- 
ficial geniality,  as  if  they  had  somehow 
managed  to  avoid  the  seriousness  of  life, 
to  ignore  the  import  of  its  cares  and 
fears?    We  speak  of  them  perhaps  as     The  farther 

life 

light  hearted.    But  the  truth  may  be  the  deep, 
opposite  of  this ;  their  lives  are  calm  and  "^'^^  ^ 
cheerful  because  they  strike  deep,  they 
go  below  the  surface  to  secret  sources* 

The  riches  of  life  depend  on  its  re- 
sources. What  you  have  for  public  living 
depends  on  what  you  lay  up  for  yourself 
in  private.  The  atmosphere  and  climate 
of  your  personality  are  determined,  not  by 
the  latitude  of  your  residence  but  by  your 
habits  in  seeking  out  strength  and  cheer, 
in  reaching  out  after  high  and  noble 
thoughts. 

No  matter  how  busy  the  life  may  be 


44  The  Friendly  Life 

there  are  hours  when  one  is,  as  it  were» 
turned  in  upon  himself.    To  what  do  we 
look  then,  upon  what  do  we  dwell? 
Our  own  lives  are  Where  do  we  speud  such  spirit  vacations  ? 

robbed  of  sweet-  , 

ness  by  bitter  xhc  cHmate  of  cvcry  hour  is  here  given 

thoughts  of  others  ^^^^  ^.^^^  ^^^^ 

seek  the  light ;  no  sunny  skies  can  chase 
away  our  gloom  if  here  we  seek  the  dark- 
ness. 

This  is  the  value  of  reading  the  Bible, 
it  brings  you  into  the  presence  and  at- 
mosphere of  great  personalities,  their 
thinking  leads  you  to  visions  of  the  light 
that  lies  unchanging  beyond  our  clouds 
and  our  alternating  day  and  night.  The 
The  friendship  y^j^e  is  the  samc  as  in  all  communion 

of  great  souls  i  i  .    i  •  i 

makes  rich  our  ^j^j^  great  souls  ;  ucw  aud  high  perennial 

own  souls 

Springs  of  life  are  discovered. 

In  every  direction  great  lives  are  open 
to  us.  In  every  age  and  in  all  lands  there 
have  been  those  who  found  the  essential 
verities  that  remain  unchanged  through 


Friendship  as  a  Climate  45 

all  our  seasons  and  vicissitudes.  Their 
way  to  light  and  truth  is  open  to  us ;  the 
way  is  barred  only  to  the  selfish  and  the 
insincere. 

Truly  this  is  a  simple  message,  that  the 
heart  makes  its  own  climate ;  but  what  a 
difference  it  would  make  if  we  would  but    J''''^''^.^  ""^^^ 

the  unfading  sum- 

cherish  in  our  hearts  all  the  light  and  mer  of  the  heart 
truth  and  cheer  we  may,  if  we  would  share 
this  inner  summer  tide,  if  we  would  gain 
the  unchanging  sunshine  even  through 
our  varying  experiences. 


VIII 


FAITH  AND  FRIENDSHIP 

~0  be  loveless  is  to  be  law- 
less in  the  heavenly  king- 
dom. The  supreme  sin 
is  that  of  selfishness.  The 
best  of  all  religion's  gifts 
to  this  world  is  the  spirit  of  thought,  care 
and  service  for  others,  the  cultivation  of 
Serving  man  is  wiUiugness  to  scrvc  and  sacrifice  for  those 
seekhig^GoT^  "  who  havc  uo  strougcr  claim  on  us  than 
that  they  are  human,  fellow  travellers  on 
the  open  way,  the  passion  that  pours  it- 
self out  on  the  one  who  is  most  needy. 

We  may  be  selfish  as  a  race ;  but  a 
selfish  religion  will  never  get  any  firm 
grip  on  the  hearts  of  men.  So  long  as 
preaching  made  its  appeal  to  instincts  or 
self-preservation  alone,  urging  us  to  flee 
46 


Faith  and  Friendship  47 

from  punishment  and  to  fix  ourselves 
solid  for  the  future,  it  awakened  no  more 
enthusiasm  than  any  other  life-  or  fire- 
insurance  scheme.  Religion  has  been 
mighty  only  as  it  has  glowed  with  a  con-    No   man  sees 

less  than  the  one 

summg  passion  to  save  others,  to  do  good  who  always  looks 

out  for  number  one 

to  all  men. 

The  life  of  Christ  is  the  best  commen- 
tary on  "the  law  of  Christ''  ;  He  showed 
how  to  bear  the  burdens  of  others " ; 
His  was  the  life  of  a  friend ;  He  spent  no 
time  about  advertising  His  own  burdens 
or  exhibiting  them  as  arguments  for  im- 
munity from  the  troubles  of  His  neigh- 
bours. Sick  ones,  sorrowing  stricken 
parents,  hungry  mob,  maimed  bodies  and 
imprisoned  minds  crowded  His  own  needs 
out  of  the  circle  of  His  attention.  None 
ever  sought  Him  only  to  find  the  Busy  " 
sign  at  His  door.  His  law  of  life  is  the 
living  in  openness  of  touch  with  men  ;  it 
keeps  the  gloves  off  the  heart ;  it  quickens 


48  The  Friendly  Life 

and  strengthens  the  spontaneity  of  the 
hand  to  help. 

The  ideal  Man  was,  above  all  else,  an 
ideal  friend.  Selfish-hearted  enemies  rec- 
ognized that  and  flung  at  Him  the  term 
of  reproach  which  has  since  become  His 
glory.  His  power  over  men  lay  not  in 
There  are  a  mil-  pjjg  proficiencv  as  tcacher,  as  lawmaker, 

lion  ways  of  spell-  * 

ing  love  and  none  ^j.      leader,  but  in  that  He  entered  into 

of  them  confined 

to  letters  their  lives  and  daily,  in  friendship's  simple 

ways,  gave  His  life  to  the  lives  about 
Him.  Even  the  ultimate  evidence  of  His 
love  He  chose  to  regard  as  a  simple 
proof  of  friendship. 

Friendship  accounts  in  no  small  meas- 
ure for  the  manner  in  which  men  followed 
the  Man  of  Galilee.  Neither  persuaded 
by  arguments  nor  overcome  by  authority 
they  looked  into  His  face  and  cried,  "  Tell 
us  where  you  dwell  Abide  with  us.'' 
Bonds  of  friendship  brought  them  back 
when  other  interests  attracted  or  when 


Faith  and  Friendship  49 

doubts  weakened  intellectual  allegiance. 
Long  before  they  were  conscious  of  any 
common  cause  that  group  of  men  became 
one,  fused  by  the  warmth  of  friendship 
for  Him  and  for  one  another. 

Friendship  transformed  the  rude,  dull 
fishermen  into  ardent,  tactful,  successful 
leaders  of  a  world-influencing  force- 
They  were  changed  because  they  loved.   Living  with  Him 

^  leads  to  likeness  to 

Liking  led  to  love  and  love  to  likeness.  Him 
To-day  men  become  Christly  because 
they  see  in  Jesus  such  a  one  as  they 
would  love  to  call  friend,  whom  they 
would  travel  far  to  know,  and  forsake 
many  things  to  keep. 

Many  men  are  harassed  over  subtle 
definitions  on  the  relations  of  the  soul  of 
man  with  the  unseen.  They  fret  their 
brains  and  hearts  away  trying  to  outline 
charts  and  determine  soundings  of  the 
shore  where  the  islets  of  our  lives  are 
lapped  by  the  infinite  ocean  of  the  Most 


f  50  The  Friendly  Life 

High.    But  seeing  souls  know  that  forms 

and  figures  all  are  futile  here  and  they  are 

content  to  express  the  relationship  in 

simple  terms  of  friendship.    The  highest 

form  of  reUgion,  on  this  side  of  it,  is  the 

soul  of  man  seeking  after  ever  closer 

friendship  with  the  great  soul  that  broods 

over  all  being.     So  thinking,  religion 

passes  from  phrases  to  personalism. 

God  has  grown  in  our  thinking  from  a 

giant  who  makes  worlds  to  a  heart  that 

suffers  with  ours,  a  soul  that  seeks  ours,  a 

being  who  is  man's  friend,  and  who  can- 

No  man  can  long  Satisfied  uutll  all  humauity  is  em- 

be  a  bigot  who 

tries  to  be  a  bj-accd  lu  thc  clrclc  of  that  friendship. 

brother 

That  familiar  phrase  "  the  grace  of  God  " 
loses  theological  angles  in  the  sweep  of 
its  significance  in  His  Friendship. 

Simple  friendship  is  the  most  helpful 
expression  of  any  man's  religion.  He 
is  most  like  God  who  most  loves  man. 
Religion  at  its  best  is  doing  deeds  of 


Faith  and  Friendship  51 


kindness,  showing  friendship  in  plain, 
every-day  ways.  It  is  the  laying  down  of 
life  for  men  not  by  dying  but  by  daily 
living    for  them.     By  thoughtfulness, 

Practical  pity  for 

gentle  consideration,  practical  helpful-  men  is  the  best 

kind    of  piety 

ness,  by  doing  whatever  the  friend  of  towards  God 
sinners  would  do  for  men,  it  proves  itself 
born  from  above. 


IX 


A  PATH  TO  THE  INFINITE 


RIENDSHIP  may  not  be 
the  last  word  in  religion 
but  it  is  certainly  one  of  the 
most  illuminating.  The 
more  of  the  divine  its 


content  seems  to  convey  the  more  divine 
all  life  becomes.  The  more  it  means  to 
us  in  all  our  living  the  more  nearly  does 

Looking  for  our  ^ 

brothers  we  find       j-j^^  mvsterv  of  Hviug  aoproach  solu- 

our  Father  o  jtx 

tion,  until  we  find  the  infinite  face  in  the 
faces  of  our  friends. 

Still  are  men  crying,  as  of  old,  Who 
will  show  us  the  way  to  God?  The 
heart  of  humanity  is  hungry  for  the  in- 
finite reality.  Therefore  men  flock  to 
the  cry  of  each  new  voice  that  proclaims, 
"  Here  is  truth,  here  is  the  divine  secret." 
Yet  again  and  again  we  have  to  turn 


A  Path  to  the  Infinite  53 

away  disappointed  ;  it  was  not  a  voice  ; 
it  was  but  the  echo  of  some  outworn  creed 
or  superstition. 

Who  will  show  us  God?  How  can 
another  reveal  truth  to  us  ?  Each  man 
must  discover  his  own  truth  ;  it  cannot  be 
borrowed ;  it  cannot  be  imparted.  An- 
other's hand  may  point  out  some  new  Friendship  can- 
not live  save  in 

glory,  some  shining  spire  of  the  far-off  freedom 
city  of  truth,  but  each  for  ourselves  we 
must  make  our  own  way  there. 

But  what  is  the  way ;  how  may  one 
find  this  city  wherein  dwelleth  the  Lord 
and  Maker  of  us  all  ?  Shall  we  climb  up 
to  the  heavens  where  our  childish  fancy 
painted  a  gigantic  being  seated  on  the  ^ 
clouds?  Shall  we  find  the  infinite  by 
sitting  with  the  seers  in  other  lands, 
those  who  peer  into  life's  strange  mys- 
teries ? 

After  all  is  not  God  nearer  than  we 
know  ?    If  we  are  His  children  may  we 


54  The  Friendly  Life 

not  find  the  Father  through  the  family  ? 
If  we  have  grown  beyond  the  necessity 
of  thinking  of  that  infinite  aflection  as 
confined  to  a  definite  face  and  figure,  how 
can  we  hope  to  better  know  it  than 
He  knows  the  through  thosc  iu  whom  affection  is  best 
setks  thf  good  of  shown  and  towards  whom  it  may  be  most 
freely  exercised  ? 

Through  the  ages  men  have  been  seek- 
ing after  the  divine ;  they  are  as  flowers 
that  have  through  many  stages  of  de- 
velopment ever  turned  their  faces  towards 
the  sun.  We  who  cannot  bear  to  look  at 
the  sun  with  naked  eyes,  may  we  not 
read  some  of  his  glories  in  the  glowing 
You  never  find  j^^^g      j-Qg^  or  daisv  or  poppy  ?    So  we 

your    Father  by 

turning  your  back  ^j^q  ^^q^      }t  wcrc,  shadows  of  thc  in- 

on  your  brother 

finite  must  find  that  infinite  One  through 
one  another. 

Too,  may  it  not  be  that  somehow  the 
great  source  of  all  life  is  expressing  itself 
in  our  living  ?    The  child  is  the  expression 


A  Path  to  the  Infinite  55 

of  the  father ;  the  family  of  the  parents 
and  its  members.  Is  not  humanity  after 
all  in  its  development  and  particularly  in 
its  social  realization  the  expression  of  the 
divine  ?  These  aspirations,  longings, 
ideals ;  these  complex  adjustments  of  our     They  seldom 

.  transgress  any 

manifold  livmg  and  this  growing  sense  law  who  foiiow 
of  a  Hfe  that  belongs  to  us  all  and  binds  "^^^"^^  ^"''^  ^^^^^ 
us  all  together,  may  not  all  these  be  but 
the  heavenly  and  eternal  moving  in  us 
all? 

Now  if  we  would  come  to  know  any 
truth  there  is  one  safe  and  sure  path  for 
all  feet,  that  is  to  do  that  truth.  If  we 
would  know  the  truth  as  to  the  Lord  of 
all  being,  the  infinite  source  of  life  and 
this  Father  of  us  all,  is  there  any  better 
way  than  the  free,  full  living  of  that 
which  seems  to  spring  from  heavenly 
sources  in  our  living  with  one  another  ? 

This  is  the  way  of  the  Man  of  Nazareth. 
He  revealed  the  Father  by  His  love  for 


56  The  Friendly  Life 

His  children,  and  He  invited  men  to 
know  the  Father  through  Himself,  their 
brother.  The  more  our  lives  go  out  in 
love  to  other  lives,  the  more  fully  and 
clearly  shall  we  know  the  divine. 

Christianity  tells  of  a  God  who  loves 
men,  who  seeks  them,  who  goes  out 
amongst  them,  winning  them  to  the 
higher,  fairer  ways.  A  man  is  godly,  not 
in  the  measure  that  he  reaches  up  to  the 
Wherever  love  heavcus,  but  lu  the  measure  that  he,  too, 

bends   in  service 

the  heart  is  lifted  reachcs  out  to  mcu  ;  he  is  divine  in  the 

in  worship 

measure  that  he  catches  that  glorious 
spirit  of  self-giving.  He  best  believes  in 
God  who  most  believes  in  men. 

Heaven  is  found  in  humble  places 
here  ;  the  divine  is  in  the  faces  of  our  fel- 
lows, in  ways  of  lowly  service  and  sufler- 
ing.  Not  in  the  vaulted  skies  shall  we 
find  the  truth  about  the  infinite,  but  in 
the  faces  of  our  fellows,  in  walking  the 
ways  where  men  and  women  weep,  in 


A  Path  to  the  Infinite  57 

leading  little  children  out  to  fields  of 
happy  laughter,  in  doing  for  all  our  kind 
what  we  believe  the  highest  would  do 
for  us  all. 

Above  all  other  characteristics  the  life 
of  the  Master  was  a  friendly  life.    Men   character  is  the 

sum  of  all  life's 

surely  thought  more  of  His  friendship  than  choices 
of  their  faith.    In  that  atmosphere  they 
found   one  another  and  so  found  the 
Father.    Choosing   so  high  friendship 
they  found  the  highest  life. 


X 


THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  FRIENDSHIP 


RIENDS  go  on  before, 
but  friendships  abide. 
The  grave  cuts  no 
chasm  through  love  and 
through  the  dark  door 
of  death  runs  warm  and  holds  firm  the 
cable  of  aflection. 

No  voice  may  come  to  us  ;  no  eyes 
look  into  ours ;  years  may  dim  the  mem- 
The    apparent  ory  of  fcaturcs  but  Still  withiu  us  is  this 

power  of  death  to 

separate  is  the  cherishcd  trcasurc  of  their  love  and  firm 

strongest       bond  .if.it  11  .11 

that  binds   the  as  ctemity  the  faith  that  they  love  us  still. 

hving  together  plant  the  flowcrs  on  the  mounds  in 

the  churchyard ;  not  because  we  ever 
think  that  they  are  lying  there  but  because 
our  love  for  them  must  find  some  expres- 
sion ;  welling  up  within  it  must  work  it- 
self out  at  hands  and  finger-tips.  Blinded 
by  tears,  watering  those  flowers,  we  weep 
58 


The  Immortality  of  Friendship  59 

not  with  sorrow  that  they  are  gone  but 
with  surfeit  of  emotion,  more  the  pain  of 
joy  than  of  bitterness  that  we  can  thus  in 
such  a  Uttle  way  express  our  love  to  them. 

There  is  a  form  of  friendship  altogether 
unaffected  by  the  passing  of  the  years  or 
by  the  tides  of  fortune.  It  has  laid  hold 
on  that  which  is  eternal.    Its  bonds  bind     Heart  strings 

make   the  music 

not  flesh  nor  clay  but  spirit  to  spirit  and  of  the  ages 
heart  to  heart.  Friendship  defies  the 
fading  leaf,  the  withering  cheek,  the  de- 
vouring worm  ;  its  possessions  are  in  per- 
sonality, its  treasures  are  beyond  moth 
and  rust  and  intruder. 

This  would  be  a  dark  world  for  the  liv- 
ing but  for  our  love  for  the  dead.  It 
comes  to  pass  that  some  of  us  have  the 
best  part  of  ourselves  over  there  and  all  of 
us  are  made  more  tender  by  thoughts  of 
unseen  eyes  that  look  down  on  us  measur- 
ing us  with  hearts  freed  from  the  bias  and 
lusts  of  the  world  we  yet  are  in. 


6o  The  Friendly  Life 

We  need  not  worry  whether  we  will 
know  them  again,  those  friends  whose 
faces  lightened  ours  in  days  gone  by,  for 
though  they  be  changed  to  a  seraph^s 
beauty  we  shall  see  not  their  faces  but 
their  affection.  He  lives  yet  in  the  dust 
who  worries  as  to  physical  preservation 
He  has  no  friends  and  identification.     This  we  all  know, 

who  knows  only 

faces  who  hold  deep  within  us  the  friendships 

of  those  who  are  living  in  larger  life,  that 
love  can  never  die,  that  affection  enlarges 
despite  the  decays  of  time  and  grave  and 
that  something  of  the  self  which  is  the 
basis  of  friendship  is  immortal. 

This  sense  of  the  persistence  of  friend- 
ship is  more  than  a  state  of  feeling  ;  it  is 
the  first  flower  of  immortality ;  it  is  the 
eternal  and  divine  in  us  answering  to  the 
eternal  and  divine  in  lives  that  have  been 
loosed  from  our  limitations.  It  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  alleged  communications 
from  the  other  world.    It  is  the  deep, 


The  Immortality  of  Friendship  6l 

abiding  and  strengthening  sense  that  the 
web  of  love  cannot  be  cut  by  the  keen 
edge  of  death,  that  friendships  abide 
through  all,  that  love  is  immortal  and 
loving  the  measure  of  our  immor- 
tality. 

No  wonder  the  immortal  hope  burns 
low  when  unfed  by  this  secret  supply ;  no 
wonder  men  doubt  the  future  when  their  Love  is  life 
hearts  find  no  vital  contact  with  its  life, 
when  they  must  depend  on  what  the 
head  may  reason  from  analysis  and  prob- 
abiUties.  i 

I  am  not  worried  as  to  life  beyond  be- 
cause I  know  there  is  love  beyond.  The 
only  going  out  from  life  I  need  to  fear 
would  be  going  out  into  a  world  where 
love  was  not.  Precise  plans  of  eternal 
redemption  lie  beyond  my  reasoning  but 
on  the  fact  of  infinite  friendship  I  rest  and 
know  that  the  eternal  affection  will  find 
me  and  teach  me  the  larger  life  of  the 


62  The  Friendly  Life 

world  where  love  shall  have  its  liberty 
and  shall  be  the  law  of  all. 

I  know  not  where  I  shall  meet  those 
friends,  where  father  and  mother  and  child 
will  wait  but  a  lovelight  that  beams  clear 
here  within  will  lead  me  to  them  and  I 
shall  know  them  by  that  light.  Love 
will  come  into  its  own ;  friendship  into  its 
fullness.  The  barriers  will  have  been 
broken  down.  We  shall  know  even  as 
we  are  known  for  we  shall  love  even  as 
He  loves. 

So  what  can  I  do  better  in  these  days 
than  cherish  this  hope,  magnify  this  life 
of  loving,  make  more  friends  that  I  may 
have  greater  fullness  of  living  there  and, 
if  the  great  hope  of  that  life  be  this  free 
fullness  of  friendship,  bringing  into  this 
drear  world  as  much  of  that  life  as  I 
may  by  being  good  friend  to  as  many  as 
I  may  ? 


HENRY    F.  COPE 


Levels  of  Living 

12mo,  Decorated  cloth,  net  $1.00 
"  Mr.  Cope  has  a  peculiar  gift  for 
plain  thinking  along  with  unconven- 
tional modes  of  statement  and  strik- 
ingly pat,  telling  phrase,"  —  Chicago 
Tribune.  . 

The  Friendly  Life 

The  Right  Living  Series 
16mo,  Boards,  net  35c 

T'be  Modern  Sunday 
School  in  Principle  and 
Practice 

2nd  Edition.    12mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00 

Hymns  You  Ought  to 
Know 

( Edited  by  Henry  F.  Cope. ) 
Decorated,  8vo,  cloth,  net  $1.50 
A  Selection  of  One  Hundred  Stand- 
ard Hymns  with  a  short  introductory 
sketch  to  each. 


A  Million  and  a  Half  Sold  of 

RALPH  CONNOR'S  WORKS 


The  Doctor.  ATaleoftheRockies. 
235th  thousand,    12mo,        •        "  *. 

The  best  thing  Ralph  Connor  has  done  since  Ihe 
Sky  Pilot'  and  pehaps  the  best  that  he  has  ever  done. 
Here  he  is  at  his  strongest  and  best  in  drawing  rugged 
pictures  of  rough  but  true  men."— A^.  K.  F tmes  Review, 

The  Prospector,  a  Xale  of  the  crowds  Nest  Pass. 
155th  Thousand,  12mo,  -  -  -  1-50. 
"A  novel  so  intense  that  one  grinds  his  teeth  less  his 
sinew  should  snap  ere  the  strain  is  released."— 
Chicago  Tribune, 

Gwen.    The  Canyon  story  from  "  The  Sky  Pilot "  in 
Art  Gift  Book  Series,  beautifully  printed  in  two  colors 
with  many  illustrations  and  marginal  etchings. 
25th  thousand,  12mo,  art  cover,     •        -     net  .75. 

Glengarry  School  Days.  Astory  ofeariy 

days  in  Glengarry. 

85th  thousand,  12mo,  Illustrated,  Cloth,  -  1-25. 
••Gets  a  swing  of  incident  and  danger  that  keep  you 
tearing  away  at  the  pages  till  the  book  is  done."— 
N.  Y.  Mail, 

The  Man  from  Glengarry,  a  Taie  of 

the  Ottawa.  210th  thousand,  12mo,  Cloth,  -  1.50 
"A  legitimate  successor  to  *  The  Sky  Pilot'  and  *Black 
Rock?  which  secured  him  swift  fame  that  leaps  to  the 
author  who  strikes  a  new  and  effective  note,"— i  ^tf 
Literary  Digest, 

The  Sky  Pilot,  a  Xale  of  the  Foothills.  Illus- 
trated by  Louis  Rhead. 

2 J Qth  thousand,  12mo,  Cloth,  -  -  1.25. 
"  Ralph  Connor's  *Black  Rock*  was  good,  but  *The 
Sky  Pilot'  is  better.  The  matter  whicTi  he  gives  us  is 
real  life ;  virile,  true,  tender,  humorous,  pathetic,  spiri- 
tual, wholesome."— 7"^^  Outlook, 

Black  Rock.  ATaleoftheSelklrks.  Introduction 
by  George  Adam  Smith.  Illustrated  by  Louis  Rhead. 
550th  thousand,  12mo,  Cloth,  -  -  ..^'^ 
*'  Ralph  Connor  has  gone  into  the  heart  of  the  North- 
west Canadian  mountains  and  has  painted  tor  us  a 
picture  of  life  in  the  lumber  and  mining-camps  01  sur- 
passing merit,"-*S'if.  Louis  Globe  Democrat, 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  0112  003960041 


